What are Badges?

Badges are used on product or business listings to indicate things that we think you should know about. A product may be vegan, but that doesn’t mean it’s ethically or humanely produced, or a business may sell vegan products alongside controversial or cruel products. Badges can be good, neutral or not recommended and are all intended to help you make better purchasing decisions. If a listing has an incorrect badge, needs a badge displayed, or if you have a badge suggestion, please tell us.

Good Badges

These are recommended products or businesses. These companies have gone out of their way to produce humanely manufactured products or to better cater to a vegan market.

Beauty without Cruelty Approved

BWC Humane Guide badges are displayed on products or companies that have verified they do not test their final products or ingredients on animals. Beauty without Cruelty also requires that holding companies adhere to these same standards. All companies with this badge have been audited and been approved by BWC and are listed on the BWC Humane Guide. Beauty without Cruelty offer endorsement and auditing as a free service to the public. Contact Beauty without Cruelty for an audit.

Leaping Bunny Approved

Leaping Bunny badges are for Leaping Bunny approved companies and products. The Leaping Bunny Program provides assurance that no animal testing is currently used in any phase of product development by the company, its laboratories, or suppliers. Leaping Bunny requirements do not apply to holding companies or subsidiaries, as Beauty without Cruelty requires.

South African Vegan Society Approved

SA Vegan Society Approved badges are for SAVS approved companies and products. All vegan products endorsed by The SA Vegan Society have been manufactured in a 100% vegan kitchen or factory so you can be assured no cross-contamination has taken place and you can be certain of a products vegan status. If you think your products can pass the criteria for an endorsement you can apply here.

Vegan SA Approved Restaurant or Venue

Vegan SA is South Africa’s most popular vegan directory for listing vegan friendly establishments and products. Their strict criteria assures only the best and most vegan friendly places get listed. If a restaurant or venue is listed on Vegan SA, you know it’s probably going to be good! If you think you can match their criteria, get in touch with them and get listed.

100% Vegan Restaurant or Business

This is a business, restaurant, or product produced by a company that is 100% vegan. You can sleep peacefully knowing they have your interests and the animals' best interests at heart. We recommend you support these companies and their products as much as possible.

Neutral Badges

100% Vegetarian Restaurant or Venue

This restaurant or business serves only vegetarian (and possibly vegan) food. Yay, they are 90% of the way there. Vegetarian friendly often means vegan friendly! We’d love to put this on our ‘good badges’ list, but it’s not quite there given “you know what happens to the baby male calves” thing and "male chicks for eggs". Good on them for not serving meat though.

Non-GMO

This badge is for products or companies that use Non-GMO ingredients. Why is this listed as neutral badge? Because it’s a controversial topic that does not necessarily mean a product is vegan or not. Genetic modification is simply a technology that could possibly have good or bad benefits. It’s complicated, but either way… you as a consumer get to decide.

Organic

If a product is made using only organic ingredients it gets a badge. Organic food is better right, so why a neutral badge? Yes, it is mostly better, but it doesn’t mean it’s vegan. Also there are fuzzy areas, organic doesn’t always mean best. In some cases 'big organic agriculture' can sometimes be more harmful to the environment and to animals than non-organic. Again we’re sitting this one out, but we believe it’s important for you as the consumer to get to choose.

May Contain X

This badge is for products that do / or could possibly (but don’t confirm) that they use the same manufacturing tools to make vegan and non-vegan products. It’s for the products that say they may contain milk, eggs, whey powder, nuts or whatever non-vegan ingredient is in the room. It’s a tricky one as so-called vegan products may contain traces of non-vegan products. Also often a manufacturer puts this on their labelling just to to stay on the safe side and avoid trouble. We’ll never really know. You decide, or contact the manufacturer directly. We’ll use this badge if that’s what the labelling says.

Not Recommended Badges

Tests on Animals

We require all companies to be audited by Beauty without Cruelty or The Leaping Bunny in order to qualify for a listing. However often things change, a previously approved company could change their ingredients or they could have been bought over by animal testing company. This badge means that the product either tests their products on animals or possibly tests their products on animals. Unfortunately it’s the norm for most companies to claim that they do not test on animals despite the fact they still outsource final products testing or allow single ingredients to be tested on animals but not the final product. If you are certain your company does not test on animals, please apply for a free audit with Beauty without Cruelty.

Serves Foie Gras

This restaurant serves foie gras. All animal exploitation is bad, but given the exceptional cruelty of foie gras and the bans around the world this deserves special mention. Often the the best restaurants serving the most delicious vegan meals also serve foie gras. Please ask them not too.

Product has Palm Oil

Palm oil is a big issue for vegans given the destructive clearing of land and species for its production. If a product has palm oil in it we’ll give it a badge. There are arguments for sustainable palm oil, but even this is controversial for many reasons.

Not Vegan

Misleading ingredients or recently changed products get a non-vegan badge. Often companies don’t list non-vegan ingredients or they are changed on the fly. This badge may also be used for not obvious non-vegan products that we want you to be aware of.